1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contactless connector which contactlessly sends and receives data, in particular, to contactless connector which contactlessly sends and receives data between a light element of a rotating body and a light element of a fixed body, via a reflector provided on the rotation axis of the rotating member.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, data has been sent and received between a rotating side and a fixed side. For example, a camera may be provided on a rotatable base, and a video signal or similar from the camera transmitted to a fixed-side signal processing portion. In this case, by directly connecting the camera and signal processing portion by wire, the video signal from the camera have been transmitted to the fixed-side signal processing portion. However, with the advance of wireless signal technology in recent years, it has become possible to perform data transmission and reception between the rotating side and the fixed side, even without a direct wire connection.
However, in order to cause image capture or other operation on the rotating side, it is necessary to supply power to the rotating side, but there has been the problem that it is difficult to supply contactlessly power from the fixed side to the rotating side.
Therefore, conventionally, a plurality of light-emitting elements have been provided on the top of a disk-shaped rotating body and a plurality of light-receiving elements of a fixed body have been provided in positions of the fixed side facing the light-emitting elements, data has been transmitted and received contactlessly, and a rotating transformer is constituted between the rotating side and fixed side, whereby the contactless supply of power from the fixed side to the rotating side has been implemented (see for example Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-75760).
However, in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-75760, as the data communication speed is increased it may not necessarily be possible to transmit all the data from the light-emitting element of the rotating body to the light-receiving element of the fixed body. That is, in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-75760, the light path from light-emitting elements is switched to other light-receiving elements such that the contactless light connection between light elements is not broken due to rotation of the rotating member. In this switching method, as the data communication speed is increased there are cases in which data is transmitted faster than the time for processing to switch the light path, so that the continuity of high-speed communication cannot be secured.